Duke women's tennis sweeps Dartmouth in preparation for heart of ACC schedule

<p>Kelly Chen cruised to victory on Court 3.</p>

Kelly Chen cruised to victory on Court 3.

In a brief break from their ACC schedule, the No. 4 Blue Devils had a dominant Sunday afternoon against Dartmouth.

In its first home match in almost a month, Duke extended its home winning streak to 18 matches spanning the last three seasons with a 7-0 sweep of the Big Green in the two schools' first-ever meeting. The match at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center was a comfortable tune-up before the bulk of regular-season conference play in March and April.

No. 3 Ellyse Hamlin and Kaitlyn McCarthy quickly put away Dartmouth’s pair of Julia Schroeder and Abigail Chiu 6-2 to start off the afternoon’s action. Freshman Hannah Zhao and sophomore Meible Chi wasted equally little time with a 6-2 victory against Catherine Cable and Allison Chuang to secure the doubles point. 

Duke continued its dominance into singles play, with no Big Green player winning more than three games in a set. McCarthy started things off with a 6-0 first-set win against Chiu and let up only slightly, allowing Chiu just one game in the second set.

Senior Rebecca Smaller was the next to wrap her match up with an easy 6-1, 6-1 win against Maddie Hwang.

Zhao clinched the match for the Blue Devils 6-1, 6-3 after trailing through two games in the second set, but the teams played the rest of the match out, and freshman Kelly Chen handily defeated Raquel Lyn to improve her team-best season record to 20-7.

After Chi wrapped up an easy win on Court 4, Duke’s No. 1, Samantha Harris, sealed the sweep with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Schroeder, improving to 19-7 on the season.

The Blue Devils will get back into conference play and back on the road when they take on No. 10 Wake Forest Friday at 4 p.m.

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